Nutt slipped from No. 1 to No. 6 in this week’s coacheshotseat.com’s ranking of the coaches feeling the most heat (one place behind Nick Saban - ha). Check out what the site’s blog page has to say about our fearless leader:

“There is so much more to the Houston Nutt story than a win/loss record, and people that have not followed what has happened to Arkansas football since the end of last season, have not paid attention enough to comment on these matters (ESPN talking heads) … He recruited a ton of talent to Fayetteville and if Malzahn had been given free reign to run the Arkansas offense last season (which would have led to Mustain staying at UA) we have doubt that the Razorbacks would be undefeated and No. 1 in the country right now heading to play LSU. How sad, but also a good lesson for coaches and managers everywhere. When you hire someone to do a job, get the hell out of their way and let them do that job.”

I’m assuming they meant to say they have “no doubt” or “little doubt” that the Hogs would be undefeated and No. 1 in the country. I think the Razorbacks would definitely have enjoyed a better season if Malzahn and Mustain were still here … but undefeated!?! Even if Mustain were around and began living up to the hype, the Hogs would still have that shaky defense, for starters.

Casey Dick has taken quite a public beating over the last 12 months, so it’s nice to see him have a good game and be recognized with the SEC Offensive Player of the Week award. Here’s hoping he throws for 4 TDs against LSU and wins it next week too…

Of course, it isn’t great. But, there’s really no use getting worked up one way or another about the basketball Razorbacks at this point in the season, especially with a team trying to get used to a new coach and a new style of play. I imagine the early going will be something of a roller coaster ride for Pelphrey & Co.

I didn’t get to see any of the Puerto Rico games, for which I was particularly grateful on Friday. As for today’s game, I’m guessing that the stat line Hog fans turned to first was the turnovers. After Friday’s record-setting debacle, Arkansas clocked in with “only” 17 and continued their strong board work, hauling in 36 rebounds to Virginia Commonwealth’s 23. It’s nice to see that Sonny Weems turned in such a strong effort (16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists), and although Patrick Beverley notched a, for him, ho-hum 13 points, the 6′1” guard did collect 6 rebounds. Pretty impressive.

The team is off until Saturday, when they will take on Delaware State in Fayetteville. After that, on Wednesday, Nov. 28, Mike Anderson and Mizzou come to town.

For those that got to see any or all of this weekend’s games, please share your impressions in the comments section.

And on a closing note, check out this Rivals.com article on Patrick Beverley.

Casey Dick throws for four TDs (!) and the Hogs enjoy a much-needed win over Mississippi State in Little Rock. Still, the rumors about Houston Nutt’s fate are getting louder and louder.

More on the football and basketball Hogs later, but for now I just wanted to say that this Thursday I will be giving thanks for Louisiana-Monroe. Actually, “schadenfreude” is probably a more appropriate term than “thankful,” but you get the point. I guess $4 million doesn’t go as far as it used to.

This is probably not the last hodge podge we’ll do on HDN’s job status:

* Max Brantley at the Arkansas Times is reporting that Houston will be out…possibly sooner rather than later.

* Arkansas Sports 360 says Nutt has job offers waiting for him. Maybe Baylor? SMU? Ole Miss??

* The Slophouse weighs in with another Butch Davis rumor update.

As you probably know, Corey Beck was shot in a random attempted robbery in Memphis several weeks ago. The good news is that he made it out of that incident alive. The bad news is that his injuries are severe (his left wrist was halfway blown off and his vision is impaired) and expensive (to the tune of $96,000 in medical bills and counting). So, he needs our help. [big thanks to the Hog Blogger for posting this story]

You can donate to his recovery at the Corey Beck Medical Fund, which has been set up at the Bank of America. Unfortunately there isn’t an online option, but I called their customer service and learned there are two ways you can contribute:

1. Walk into any B of A nationwide and tell them you want to donate to the Corey Beck Medical Fund. They should be able to look up the account number and process the donation.

2. You can also mail a check to any B of A branch along with instructions that you want to donate to this fund and, again, they’ll be able to make sure it gets to the right place. To save you the time of looking up an address, here’s the main branch in Little Rock:

Bank of America
c/o Corey Beck Medical Fund
200 W Capitol Ave
Little Rock AR 72201
(if you have questions, call 501.378.1267, then extension 4)

Corey Beck was the heart and soul of those great mid-90s Razorback teams, and he personally brought me many happy moments during those years. So, let’s all take a few minutes and share whatever we can share to repay him for that and help him out during this tough time.

All this info comes courtesy of an interview he did with the Zone, which was then posted on WooPig.net. It’s kind of long, but is definitely worth a listen if you have a few minutes. The part towards the end where he talks about Nolan’s love and generosity since the shooting is particularly moving.

In case you need any extra help getting fired up, we’ll be providing a handy pre-game cheat sheet detailing why you should hate each one of the Razorbacks’ opponents this fall. Some weeks will be easier than others…

1. They’re Better Than We Are. The Bulldogs aren’t Crooming their opponents anymore, they’re just straight up beating them. Looking at the matchup with brutal objectivity, you’d have to say that they’re better than we are at this point in the season, and with Felix Jones hobbled with an injury we don’t like where this train of thought is headed.

2. They Own the State of Alabama (and Kentucky). MSU-19, Auburn-14. MSU-31, Kentucky-14. MSU-17, Alabama-12. Given how our own games turned out at against those three teams, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little jealous.

3. They’re Standing in the Way Between Us and a Crappy Bowl Game. With all but two SEC teams already bowl-eligible (sorry Ole Miss and Vandy) but only limited spots available, this game could amount to a play-in for the Blah Blah C-List Corporate Sponsor No Name Bowl. Think about that for a second. Then think about how much it sucks that a team with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones is having to battle the Mississippi State Bulldogs for the right to play in even the lamest of bowl games.

4. They Get Fired Up in Ways That Make Us Queasy. Or at least they used to…who can forget when Jackie Sherrill, that legendary class act, tried to rally his team before a game against Texas by castrating a bull during practice? (ok, Sherrill didn’t actually do the castration, but he made it happen) Of course, the Bulldogs won that game 28-10, which shows you how much we know about motivating college football teams (or at least ones from Mississippi).

5. They Might Not Have the Internet in Starkville. Astute readers of this blog might have noticed that we haven’t done a Q&A with a Mississippi State blogger this week. That’s because there don’t seem to be any Mississippi State bloggers. A search of the Best of the SEC blogroll as well as the Internet at large turned up exactly zero appropriate sparring partners for us. Maybe AOL should drop off a bunch of their free CDs on and around the MSU campus before next year’s game.

It may have not been the prettiest victory, but it sure was a better result than the last time the Hogs opened a tournament in Puerto Rico.

I didn’t get to see the game and would love to hear the observations of those that did. But in looking at the box score and reading the AP recap, I couldn’t help but be struck by the eye-popping 26 turnovers; clearly, the Hogs have some work to do to rid themselves of one last year’s weaknesses. Arkansas did, however, continue to display one of the strengths of the Heath era: rebounding. I’m guessing, however, that the disparity in that stat was due in part to the Hogs’ size advantage.

Finally, I was glad to see that Sonny Weems had such a strong second half; if Pelphrey can get him to more assertive and even a little selfish at times, that would go a long way towards helping this team reach its potential. Sonny’s performance in the early going is something I’ll be keeping a close eye on.

Now, it’s on to a Friday matchup against Temple and hopefully a Sunday appearance on ESPN2 in the tournament championship.

(By the way, if you’re looking for more coverage of today’s victory, check out the Hog Blogger’s entertaining live blog of the game.)